Microsoft unveils chat-based workspace

Gurgaon: With am aim to bring together people, conversations, content and the tools that teams need to collaborate in offices, Microsoft on Tuesday demostrated a new chat-based workspace called “Microsoft Teams”. “Microsoft Teams” provides persistent, threaded chat to keep everyone engaged and informed and packs a library of emojis, GIFs, custom stickers and memes that gives people a fun way to express personality within their digital workspace. “People can start voice and video meeting as well as work with Microsoft Office documents directly within the ‘Microsoft Teams’ experience,” Alok B Lall, Director, Office Business Group, Microsoft India, told reporters here. “Microsoft Teams” is also built on Office 365 Groups, the cross-application membership service that makes it easy for people to move naturally from one collaboration tool to another. The workspace offers the ability for teams to customise the experience to meet their specific needs and team members can create channels to organise conversations by topic. As part of Office 365, “Microsoft Teams” offers the global scale and advanced security and compliance capabilities provided by the Microsoft Cloud. Data is encrypted at all times and covered by a transparent operational model with no standing access to customer data, the company said. “Microsoft Teams” is available to all Office 365 commercial customers and will run on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and web platforms. IANS